AQA Approaches in Psychology Practice Test

The main idea here is that the self is a mental representation of who we are—the ideas and values that characterize 'I' and 'me.' It includes how we perceive ourselves and how we value what we are and what we can do. That internal sense of identity and appraisal fits best with the option that describes the self as our beliefs and attitudes about ourselves, not something external or purely physical.

This differs from instinctual drives, which are about primitive motivational urges; from a genetic blueprint, which is about biological inheritance; and from observable behavior, which is how we act or what others can see, not the internal sense of self.